Yamaha Nuovo Sx

[bluekite]

I was looking at the new PCX 150 - and am still interested in it - when i came across the new Yamaha Nouvo sx scooter to replace the widely admired Elegance model, but i've yet to find a single review of this bike in spite of much Googling. All i can find are idiotic youtube videos of the dashboard vibrating while the owner tries to show how fast he's going. Boring! There has been plenty of people moaning about it having dropped 10cc's (Gasp!) but frankly it's no big deal to me, if in other respects it's a better bike than its predecessor.

I've been following a thread called Yamaha nuovo Fuel injection - or some such thing - here on Thaivisa but in spite of many pages there is still no real info on this bike. Today i saw one at my local dealer for 60K with the tubeless tires etc and was impressed, even if the owner told me i had to have a work permit to buy it, which i don't have at present. I went to another shop who had it for the same price, and wanted a work permit too. According to numerous threads on here you don't need a work permit to register a bike so i don't know what that is all about? My partner has a work permit and is happy to put it in her name but i'd quite like it in my name. Anyway, if you know what all that's about i'd be interested to know more.

Back to the bike. Does anyone actually own one of these, and can you point me towards a review because it seems that although they've been around for a couple of months now, nobody seems to want to talk about them. Is that a bad sign, and should i forget about this machine and go back to the PCX which is a little more expensive than i'd like?

[guzzi850m2]

In Pattaya you can buy motor bike/car with a tourist visa. You just go to immigration and apply for a residency certificate (rental contract for condo/house needed) and you bring that to the shop and you are good to go.

PCX or Nuovo? Well I have the PCX150 and haven't tried the Nuovo so I am not the right man to ask. The Nuovo never applied to me but some prefer it over the pcx.

We can discuss from now on and until New Year which bike is the best and we will never agree, he-he. If you have the option and go rent both for a day or two and then make up your mind, best way to decide, it is after all YOU who will ride it.

[jackcorbett]

Check out my Looking Glass Magazine article on the Nouvo SX. Just google it. Jack Corbett Yamaha Nouvo SX. I think I came pretty close considering I hadn't ridden one yet and it had not quite yet been released in Thailand. Since then I've driven a friend's new SX and I've got some fuel mileage figures from him.

It drives nice. Doesn't have the torque of the 135 Elegance, but my friend says it does a lot better when you rev it up. He's getting now 39 kpl in Pattaya. That compares to the figure I got on my Elegance of 33 kpl. Much of the time I had my girlfriend on it with me. My friend is, however, a lot heavier than me. That's still 18 % better fuel economy but do keep in mind the tank is just 4.3 liters versus 4.8 for the Elegance. BUT.....driving single, my weight is substantially lower than his so I'd be getting well over 40 driving in Pattaya. The bike has a few very minor styling improvements over the Elegance but in my opinion even these incremental changes add up. I'd say the Elegance is not a bad looking motorbike but it's not all that great either. But.....the little improvements all add up to making the Nouvo SX a good looking bike.

So here's my overall prognosis. With still less than 10000 kilometers on my Elegance I'm keeping it. At least for a year or two, and in a day or two I'm upgrading the tires to Michelins. It's just a great bike with excellent handling and a lot of get up and go. However.........the new SX is in my opinion a tad better overall. So I'd buy one in a heartbeat, even over the PCX which I also like. It's better looking than my bike, I believe it is going to get around 10 or 15 kilometers more per thankful IN TOWN, and with the fuel injection it's going to start easier if it's not been run longer than a week or so.

Will probably rent one for a day or two to do a little more extensive testing.

[bluekite]

Thanks for the replies.

Guzzi

So Pattaya has different laws to Bangkok? Getting really fed up with reading so many different views on all this registration stuff. Forum's like Thai Visa are usually very helpful, but if you look through many threads you start going round in circles.

BTW, just spoke to the British Embassy about getting a letter confirming my residence and they want 2700 Baht. Then ten minutes ago met a friend on their Fino who said to forget about a license and just use my UK one, as she's been doing in Bangkok for the last 3 years.

Jack. Good to hear from someone who's actually ridden one. I'm still surprised how hard it is to get feedback online about this model. Perhaps it isn't "different" enough to get many people taking an interest?

The scooter shops i've found around me (sathorn) do not have test bikes, though i know a guy who says i can try out his pcx125. Does anyone know of a short term rental place in Bangkok where i could try out both bikes?

I did rent a new 125i Click on Koh Tao a while back and was impressed with that bike. The SX is a few K more and has twin shocks so will be better 2-up i guess. Anyone tried both the new Click and the SX?

[karlos]

Ummm there is an active thread all about the Nouvo SX on this very forum, which must have only been 5-10 posts below your own. I can't remember who started it, myself or Jack, but there's plenty of info there. Feel free to ask a few questions if you can't find what you're looking for in the thread.

[fearless1]

There is an active thread and it's about 12 pages long and there are

maybe 2 posts that actually discuss the actual ride quality of the SX

[bluekite]

There is an active thread and it's about 12 pages long and there are

maybe 2 posts that actually discuss the actual ride quality of the SX

Thanks for pointing that out Fearless. The previous thread is an Aladdin's Cave of info on the former Elegance, the old PCX, the current PCX, changing tires, and quite a bit more. Where it falls spectacularly short is any info on the scooter the thread is supposed to actually be about. After 12 pages i'm not sure i learned a single thing about the SX, so hopefully this new thread will train people's minds a little?

As i said earlier, It may be that the 10cc drop has put many off, but for me 10cc is a song by a band that came on after Nights in White Satin at the disco in 1977 and not much else. If you hadn't pulled by then, "I'm not in Love" was never going to do it for you.

[bluekite]

Rented both while on holiday in the south a couple of months back. The Click 125i felt like a different generation of scooter to me.

No contest IMO. Honda wins this one hands down.

[bluekite]

Whoops!

Thought i was commenting on the Click versus Fino debate.

[jackcorbett]

Rented both while on holiday in the south a couple of months back. The Click 125i felt like a different generation of scooter to me.

No contest IMO. Honda wins this one hands down.

Uh really? I would never have a bike with a single shock off to the side. Let's face it, that's a cost cutting measure and when the going gets tough it's just not going to cut it with the better engineered bikes, which includes by the way, the PCX as well as the Nouvo. Let's face the rules of logic. If one shock off to one side only was up to snuff, then why have Honda Waves and practically everything else not been designed with that single shock years ago? The reason is starring us all right in the face. It's inferior, that's why, but it's cheaper

[fearless1]

To be fair, he was comparing the click and the fino; both have the single shock. I agree that having 2 shocks is better than one, but do you know of anyone who has had an accident which can be directly attributed to having one shock? I just got back from Koh Chang. It's pretty hilly there and the roads can be rough and dangerous at times. Most of the bikes I saw there were clicks. Maybe having a single shock isn't ideal, but maybe it's good enough.

[guzzi850m2]

To be fair, he was comparing the click and the fino; both have the single shock. I agree that having 2 shocks is better than one, but do you know of anyone who has had an accident which can be directly attributed to having one shock? I just got back from Koh Chang. It's pretty hilly there and the roads can be rough and dangerous at times. Most of the bikes I saw there were clicks. Maybe having a single shock isn't ideal, but maybe it's good enough.

It very likely good enough, or they would't have done it but bear in mind its designed for 2 Thai persons ~ 100-120 kg, so with 2 hefty farangs onboard, well lol .

My 3 year old Fino with 14K on the clock never had any problems and I am about 90 kg and I sometimes ride it like I stole it.

[bluekite]

Jack

I rented several bikes on my travels back in February. A Honda Phantom in Chiang Mai which was OK, but i wouldn't buy one. A new 125i Click with off-road tires in Koh Tao which i thought was an excellent one-up scooter. I didn't take a passenger, but the suspension seemed fine. I then had a 110 click with a fair few miles on it and didn't like it so much. The suspension was noticeably worse for the miles. In Koh Lanta i rented a Fino which was the worst of the lot, though it looked nice in purple. It did have fairly high mileage (19k if memory serves) and the suspension was crap too. Finally i rented an Elegance 135 in Phuket which was very nice, and i did some two up riding in comfort.

The reason i'm interested in the SX and PCX is that, like you, i would not want to buy a single shock scooter as i will be riding two up sometimes. Having said that i was impressed with the 125 Click i rented and it looked nice in Blue too.

[CMX]

Obviously, a single shock is not unusual and of itself. Centrally mounted springs and shocks abound in numerous expensive big sports bikes and others. What is at issue is whether the suspension for this new automatic, taking into consideration the mount - which is beefed up from the old Click-i - will, with the design for the single spring, do the job for a bigger figure or even two bigger travelers. It's my guess that Honda could design a successful single suspension for a Fortuner if they decided to try. That is, perhaps suggesting that this is a lesser design is supposing that Honda engineers don't know their business or were designing for less than the suggested payload.

We certainly need more live reports on these models if submitted objectively with facts. What I have yet to discover is the differences in manufacturers' suggested carrying capacity between the two?

I am particularly interested because a tall acquaintance claims that the new 125 Click-i is more lively in every mode than the 135 Elegance.

[ja99]

With the Click 125, it doesn't look like they changed the suspension from the previous Click 110 Combi series model, but I could be wrong on that. For what it is worth, I have run in from new a Click 110 combi and Elegance 135 in the past 8 mths or so and can say that the Click is a more comfortable ride on uneven Thai roads such as Nanai Road in Patong. Anyone who has ridden along there will know it is a dog of a track. The Elegance 135 really does thrash about a lot more, even the slightest bump will jar the whole bike - that is until you change the tire/s. The Click's rubber is broader both front and back compared to the Elegance and maybe that has a bit to do with the smoother ride. That aside, the new Nouvo SX has the same tire up front as the older model and a slightly rounder though still too thin tire on the back - so I am guessing the handling will be the same as before, fine on quality bitumen but rough on anything else. The one big safety improvement with the SX is the side stand engine cut-out switch, it took 'em long enough to figure that is a must have feature. I actually enquired around Phuket about a trade of my Elegance against a new SX but no dealer wanted to know about it.

[YipYipYa123]

With the Click 125, it doesn't look like they changed the suspension from the previous Click 110 Combi series model, but I could be wrong on that. For what it is worth, I have run in from new a Click 110 combi and Elegance 135 in the past 8 mths or so and can say that the Click is a more comfortable ride on uneven Thai roads such as Nanai Road in Patong. Anyone who has ridden along there will know it is a dog of a track. The Elegance 135 really does thrash about a lot more, even the slightest bump will jar the whole bike - that is until you change the tire/s. The Click's rubber is broader both front and back compared to the Elegance and maybe that has a bit to do with the smoother ride. That aside, the new Nouvo SX has the same tire up front as the older model and a slightly rounder though still too thin tire on the back - so I am guessing the handling will be the same as before, fine on quality bitumen but rough on anything else. The one big safety improvement with the SX is the side stand engine cut-out switch, it took 'em long enough to figure that is a must have feature. I actually enquired around Phuket about a trade of my Elegance against a new SX but no dealer wanted to know about it.

HARDLY A MUST HAVE FEATURE !

ITS NOT EVEN ON THE "NEW" CBR 250R

Is it so hard to remember to kick the stand up ?

[manarak]

err... the thread is for discussing the Nouvo SX, not clicks, finos, CBRs or whatever.

[KillingTime]

In my case the kick stand feature is well worth it as I've had some close calls having forgotten about the dam_n things.

[KillingTime]

err... the thread is for discussing the Nouvo SX, not clicks, finos, CBRs or whatever.

In my case the kick stand feature is well worth it as I've had some close calls having forgotten about the dam_n things.

I started the thread and made the mistake of posting a reply to a discussion over the click and the fino. However i think all the other posts have all been On Topic as i'm interested in hearing about people who've compared the SA's predecessor with the new Click. I still find it strange how little info there is on this new bike, though i have seen a few around Bangkok recently.

BTW, If you're looking for off topic posts there's a 12 page discussion about the new Yamaha Fuel injection that barely mentions the SX at all.

[wantan]

OP: "... it seems that although they've been around for a couple of months now, nobody seems to want to talk about them. Is that a bad sign, and should i forget about this machine and go back to the PCX which is a little more expensive than i'd like?"

I own the Elegance and i am happy with it. The SX seems to be nearly the same bike. Just a bit redesign, Fuel Injection and 10cc less. I am sure it is still as strong and reliable as the "old" Elegance. I would prefer it over the PCX, because lower price and IMO better suited for riding through traffic jams.

Sorry, i know, i am just sharing my thoughts, not "facts"

Its just a "none Honda scooter". Not many people get excited about such things.

[jackcorbett]

Well that's just it. The old model with the carburetor is just so fine a machine that switching over from a low mileage one to the SX just doesn't make sense. However, in my opinion switching over from just about anything else, to the smaller SX does make sense. (except for those in love with their PCX's). II is going to be easier to start if one is parking his bike for extended periods of time. It's going to offer (in the city) a bit more range with better fuel economy. And I do like the looks of them. But, as I mentioned in an earlier post with roughly 10,000 kilometers on my 135 c.c. Elegance, I had the battery and spark plug changed and switched tires to the Michelin Pilot Sporty's and the bike drives just about perfect now.

[karlos]

Here's a highly unscientific review of the Nouvo SX against the Suzuki Hayate

I'm still wanting to here a review from an owner, anyone?

I've seen plenty of Thai's riding them here in Lad Krabang (Bangkok)

And no, there's no where to rent one from

[bluekite]

Here's a highly unscientific review of the Nouvo SX against the Suzuki Hayate

I'm still wanting to here a review from an owner, anyone?

I've seen plenty of Thai's riding them here in Lad Krabang (Bangkok)

And no, there's no where to rent one from

So the Yammy is the yellow one, until half way in and it becomes the black one. LOL.

[yankee99]

the music is the best part of the video